From the Rector – The Vision for St Faith’s Church as a Central Focus in Havant

You may recall that in my March article I outlined the Property Development Group’s anticipated plans for the church’s development.  I went on to say, “Before the PDG brings its proposals to the PCC it is conducting a feasibility survey in the community to assess the reaction to these ideas”.  By now you will be aware that this process is underway with the congregation having been consulted as well as users and hirers of our Church Hall and the Church House.  This process will extend to voluntary and statutory bodies and the general public itself, and there is a standing display in church for anyone to see.  I hope that you have had a chance to see one of the presentations given by myself and other members of the PDG, North Harbour Consultants (who have run the consultation for us thanks to a grant from Awards for All) and our Architects, Jenny Lewin and Richard Glover.  Even if you haven’t I hope you will visit the display in church and give your response via the means mentioned on the display or direct to me.  The feedback you give will directly influence the eventual proposals the PDG takes to the PCC (the PDG anticipates to be ready to take proposals to the PCC in September.)

These ideas have been a long time in the making and now that they are seeing the light of day it is important that we take on board the feedback we receive.  I don’t want to say any more here about this process except to urge you to participate and thank all of you whose immense hard work has brought us to the point of consultation.  Clearly there is perhaps the greatest part ahead of us, but I hope we shall be in a stronger position for sharing our ideas and hearing the views of those around us.

Of course the greatest part of our consultation is with God!  All along we have been praying for guidance and listening for what God is saying to us.  This continues to be of vital importance as we seek to find the ways in which we can offer ourselves and the resource available to us, in Christ-like fashion.

So please hold the whole process in your prayers that God’s will be done.  And may you be blessed this summertime,

                                                                                                                                                                                                            David

The PDG report later on gives a summary of the briefing given to parishioners on 18 June and includes the design proposals.  The feedback from parishioners will be produced by North Harbour Consulting at the end of the study period.  However, it would be helpful if you have any comments on the design proposals for them to be published in “Faith Matters” for the benefit of other parishioners, so please let the Editor have them. 

About The Parish

Last month I wrote in “Faith Matters” about a request from Allan P Gray of Austin, Texas, for information about a Charles Reynolds and a Thomas Gillespie and I asked if any readers could help.  I also mentioned that I had contacted the Havant Museum and would let you have an update this month.  Steve Jones of the Museum has been most helpful but has not been able to trace either of these men.  Their names do not appear in parish records.  However, our enquiry has proved helpful to Steve.  You may remember that Allan’s E-mail stated that “Charles Reynolds of Clermont, Trelawny, Jamaica, made a will 15 May 1815 where he mentions his sister, Mary Ann Elizabeth Longcroft and he makes a George Harftly Longcroft of Arundel one of his executors”.  Steve has an extensive family tree of the Longcrofts and this confirmed that Mary married George in 1811.  However, until now Steve was not aware that Mary’s maiden name was Reynolds, i.e., the sister of Charles Reynolds (as Allan tells us in his E-mail).  This information will be useful to Steve in extending the Longcroft family tree.

I thought you might like some information about the Havant Museum.  It is on land in East Street purchased in 1874 by a Miss Mary Charge who had a house named “Lymbourne” built on it which is now the museum.  The house was purchased in 1904 by a Mrs Mary Elizabeth Moore who renamed it “Moorlands”.    It was requisitioned during World War Two and used to accommodate WRNS (wrens).  In 1946, it was purchased by the then Havant Urban District Council and a two storey link was built to the adjacent Town Hall.  In 1977, the Havant Borough Council moved to purpose-built civic offices in Elmleigh Road.  In 1978 the old Town Hall became the Havant Arts Centre and “Moorlands” became the Havant Museum.  How do I know all of this?  Because it is in an excellent little booklet available at the Museum with the appropriate title “Welcome to Havant Museum”.

The Museum is a credit to Havant and it is sad to read in the “News” that it may close in two years because the Havant Borough Council can no longer afford to fund it, albeit in partnership with the Hampshire County Council.  The Museum has excellent displays telling the story of Havant, as the booklet tells us “using graphic panels, objects, paintings and videos”.   Of interest to parishioners is a display about St Faith’s clock, which the booklet describes as “a magnificent working turret clock”.    There are a host of other topics including “wartime”, the Hayling Hoard which is a collection of Bronze Age axes, mosquito research, schools etc.  The Museum is always grateful for photographs, documents, etc., relating to Havant.  It also has on loan from St Faith’s a valuable Chalice.  To find out more, look up their website which is on       www.hants.gov.uk/museum/havant.

In 1980, a valued member of St Faith’s retired from the Havant Borough Council and for a period of seven or so years helped out at the Museum when staff was absent on leave or sick.  While at the Council she had some involvement in the Mosquito Research unit at Hayling Island and has quite a tale to tell about their achievements which had an impact around the world.  Maybe we can persuade her to tell us about it in “Faith Matters”.  Many years ago, in recognition of her work for the Museum, she was made an Honorary Member of the “Friends of Havant Museum”.  Her work for St Faith’s is a legend.  This incredible lady is, of course, Audrey Currie.

                                                                                                                                                                                              Roger Bryant

Correspondence Column

The Rector has kindly agreed my writing the following:

When I was Headmaster in a large North Queensland Bush Brotherhood Boys Boarding School (All Souls), its motto was “SEVIRE REGNARE” (To Serve is to Reign).

Since I retired (a course I do not advocate), I have had to make many hospital visits, both as an in-patient and an out-patient.

I write to say “thank you” to the many kind people, both church-goers and non-church-goers who have, and continue, to help me with transport when for various reasons I have been unable to drive.  Shadow, my beloved dog, in old age is also grateful to those who take him for his daily walks.

“SEVIRE REGNARE” and thank you for your help.

                                                                                                                                                                                  Canon Derek Brown

Dear Reverend Gibbons,

I hope you do not mind my contacting you to introduce you to Chantmarle Christian Resource Centre, as we have only been open six months, and I am trying to raise awareness that we exist!  I would be delighted to forward a brochure to you if you would like one.  Chantmarle is set in the beautiful Dorset countryside, and can accommodate up to 196 people in the resource centre and a further 46 in the cottages and the Manor House.  The facilities we provide range from seminar and meeting rooms to a heated indoor swimming pool, football pitch, tennis courts, table tennis, pool tables and a pitch & putt course.  Chantmarle is a wonderful place to visit, whether it is for a quiet day, seminar, personal retreat or a larger annual church holiday.  We also have wonderful conference and seminar facilities. God bless,

                                                                                             Anne Brown 01935 483201 anne@chantmarle.co.uk                                                                                                                                 

Children’s Answers to Questions on the Bible

A letter was sent to Keith Newberry at the Chichester Observer with a list of answers given by Canadian children to questions on the Bible.  They include:

·         Jesus was born because Mary had an immaculate contraption.

·         David was a Hebrew king skilled at playing the liar.  He fought with the Finkelsteins, a race of people who lived in Biblical times.

·         The greatest miracle in the Bible is when Joshua told his son to stand still and he obeyed him.

·         Lot’s wife was a pillar of salt by day, but a ball of fire by night.

·         Christians have only one spouse.  This is called monotony.

·         St Paul cavorted to Christianity.  He preached holy acrimony, which is another word for marriage.

·         Solomon, one of David’s sons, had 300 wives and 700 porcupines.

·         In the first book of the Bible, Guinessis, God got tired of creating the world so he took the Sabbath off.

·         Adam and Eve were created from an apple tree.  Noah’s wife was called Joan of Ark.

·         When the three wise guys from the east side arrived, they found Jesus with his manager.

Festival of Flowers

Did you visit, or see the Chelsea Flower Show on television?  I watched every programme and thoroughly enjoyed every bit of it.  The flowers, gardens and flower arrangements were so beautiful and everyone concerned gave it their all with such loving, thought and care.  Before jetting off on holiday to the Algarve, Colin and I decided to have a quick look at the Chichester Cathedral “Festival of Flowers”.  How beautiful it all was – absolutely breathtaking.  Again, so much love, thought and care went into it all.  There were 59 separate flower arrangements – the theme being “Let all the World in Every Corner Sing”.  There was an assortment of songs and anthems, such as, “Singing in the Rain” and “Land of Hope and Glory”, plus for Colin Warlow, “Nkosi Sikeleli Afrika”.  (“God Bless Africa”).  We really are blessed with so many talented people and flowers in our country.  It would have been very difficult to have chosen my favourite arrangement as it was all so very, very beautiful, but as I am a romantic person I would have chosen “Moonlight and Roses” and I think my Colin would have chosen “Red Sails in the Sunset”.  I wonder why?

                                                                                                                                                                                                Beryl Carter

Moonlight and Roses

Red Sails in the Sunset

Fairer Shares: St. Faith’s Financial Commitment 2006

Our diocesan expenditure will be                                                        £4,847,872

With contributions from parishes of:                                                 £3,571,038

Our contribution to Parish Share is                                                                 36,633

Our parish also has to budget for:

Church running expenses: insurance, heating, lighting, cleaning,

Routine maintenance, upkeep of services and churchyard                          22,408

Clergy expenses (including assistant clergy and pastoral staff)                   4,450

Salary and support costs                                                                                    17,560

Other costs, such as magazine, church hall, etc.                                             21,395

Church Administration costs                                                                               3,790

Fund raising costs, including architects fees                                                     9,000

Grants and donations to charities                                                                         3,500

In 2006 St. Faith’s has a commitment to find                                             £118,736

  

Letter from the Bishop of Portsmouth, the Rt Revd Dr Kenneth Stevenson

Dear everyone!

I am writing to every parish in the diocese to express my enormous sense of gratitude that – yet again – Portsmouth has the best record for payment of Fairer Shares in the Church of England.  The latest figures confirm that in 2005 we raised 99.86% of our share (leaving us only £4,851 short of the full total).  This is a great achievement, and bears witness to the diligence of parish treasurers, clergy and other officers, and to the generosity of our congregations.  Well done!

With all good wishes and the assurance of my prayers.

Yours sincerely,                                                                                                           Kenneth (and back in action albeit slowly!)

(Since Bishop Kenneth wrote this letter he had a routine hospital check-up on 19^th June and sadly, he was told that his leukaemia had returned.  He went into hospital on 20^th June for some tests, and is likely to be admitted for two further courses of chemotherapy.  This means he will be off work for at least the next two months.)

 

News from Nottingham & Derby

If you had to attend a Roman banquet, would you rather be a Roman citizen or a slave?  This was the decision we had to make as we began to study Paul’s letter to the early church in Rome.  We had a banquet (well, more of a picnic really) and each of us was one of the people Paul sends greetings to in Romans 16; if you have a look at Romans 16, you will see how many there are.  Things started off with the posh people being served by the slaves, as was normal in Roman society.  But because we were all meant to be part of a Christian community, the posh people felt very uncomfortable about being waited on by other members of the congregation and started trying to serve the slaves; eventually everyone (and all the food) ended up in the slaves’ room – like a good party ending up in the kitchen.  And all this brought home to us how difficult it must have been for early Christians to follow Paul’s advice to treat each other like brothers and sisters, when the social structure put such rigid boundaries between them.  Two thousand years later, parts of the Church still have the same problem.

In our Old Testament studies, we have been looking at how the Bible uses storytelling.  All cultures love stories and use them in many different ways.  If we say that a Bible story is ‘true’, what do we mean?  That everything in the story really happened as it says?  That the things in the story didn’t actually happen, but that the story illustrates a ‘truth’?  Or something in between those two extremes?  And do we apply different tests to different stories, and if so how and why?   To help us look closer at how Bible stories work, we tried re-writing some of them in new contexts.  I did a version of the story of Adam and Eve based on the TV show The Apprentice, which most of us were hooked on at the time.  Although it’s probably not theologically sound to compare Adam being thrown out of the Garden of Eden with a contestant being fired by Sir Alan Sugar, writing my story helped me to notice things in Genesis 3 that I had not seen before, such as the fact that only Adam is explicitly thrown out of the garden – it does not say whether or not Eve was thrown out with him.  How much do we assume we already know about Bible stories?

My placement at Derby Cathedral ended officially just before Easter, but not so that anyone would notice, as I am still there doing much the same – more, in fact. 

I recently led Choral Evensong for the first time, which involved singing the versicles/responses and the collects.  As it was a Saturday, we had a visiting choir from a church just outside Derby; the Precentor had invited them to come and sing before discovering that he was expected at the Bishop of Derby’s wedding in London the same day, so I became acting Precentor for the day.  The fear factor was further increased by the arrival of a coachload of Friends of Manchester Cathedral, who also joined us for the service.  But as no one knew it was my first time (apart from the vergers, who I bribed to keep quiet), it was less frightening than I had expected, and the very flattering acoustics of the cathedral were a big bonus.  Then, like buses coming in pairs, I had another go at Evensong the following Tuesday – this time with the boy choristers, which was far more scary, as they certainly did know that it was my first time with them. 

I’m now working more closely with the cathedral choristers and their Christian education.  As Derby Cathedral does not have a choir school, the choristers are from many different schools, and about half of them are from non-church families.  Their heavy musical schedule means that there is no time in choir practices for Christian education, so we have been doing it at other times, such as during the sermons at Evensong.  Of course, they are always delighted to miss sermons, which means that they are automatically well-disposed towards alternative activities, especially when chocolate is involved (which it usually is – a tactic I have brought here from Stanmore), but they do seem to be learning too, which is encouraging.

Back at college, we ended last term with a jazz service, in which I played my Stanmore saxophone.  The service was based around two themes: the Ten Commandments and jazz improvisation.  Not two obviously connected topics (!) but the service explored how God’s rules (in the Ten Commandments and elsewhere) can work as ground-rules around which we improvise in different circumstances – like improvising around the set structures of jazz.  It was both thought-provoking and musically exciting.

By the time you read this, my two-year course will have finished and I will know whether or not I have been given approval for a third year.  Most of the students in my year will be leaving in June and being ordained at the beginning of July.  I have postponed my ordination to 2007 and am hoping to spend the next year doing research into the theology of Christmas carol services – something that Stanmore readers will know has always been one of my passions.  So the only way I can think of to end now is “watch this space…”

Rachel Phillips  (niece of Alan Hakim)

Vicar from the pulpit:  I would be grateful if the member of the congregation who keeps calling out; “PRAISE THE LORD” would kindly cease and remember that this is the House of God.

St Faith’s Town Fair 2006 Saturday 26^th August 10:00am to 3:00pm at and around St Faith’s Church

This year’s church Town Fair will be held on the final Saturday in August.  Following on from last year’s theme of Havant Remembered, this year the theme is Havant Tomorrow.

We need help.  If you are able to spend a little part of the day helping with the stalls or with collecting donations beforehand, please do not hesitate to volunteer.  Details are available on lists in church.

We also need donations for all the stalls.  Especially the tombola, bottle stall, and white elephant stall.

Some changes this year.  There are some new stalls such as jewellery.

The grand prize draw tickets will soon be on sale.  Please buy some and perhaps sell some!

If you would like to help with a stall or organising the fair, please contact the chairman of the committee – Revd David Williams (call 023 9246 7597 or see him in church). 

From the Registers

25^th May Funeral of Ivor Morgan

26^th June Funeral of Blanche Irene Mabel Smith

Trip Down Memory Lane

In the June edition of “Faith Matters” you were asked if you recognised anybody in the two pictures published of the Havant Carnival in 1973 on page 18.  Jennifer Trodd told Audrey Currie that she had recognised her son Michael in the lower picture who was 8-years old at the time.

Wyndcliffe Voices in Concert

On Saturday 8^th July at 7.30pm the Wyndcliffe Voices plus Lazy Layne Minstrels (unusual instruments, some very old) will be performing in concert in church.  Following a very successful concert last year we are very happy to invite the Wyndcliffe Voices back this year.  Tickets are just £6 and include a glass of wine or soft drink plus nibbles, and are available from 023 9247 9937 or 023 9245 5161, at coffee morning on 1^st July or after 9.30 Sunday service.  Make a date in your diary for this treat, all proceeds for St. Faith’s Organ Fund.

The Beat Goes On! – Saturday 8 July  Drum It Home!  Thursday 14 September

All over the UK Christians will gather in their towns at noon to play drums - a rhythm that originated in Senegal by Christian Aid partners - to draw media and public attention to the ongoing need and urgency to drum out poverty - to keep the beat of Trade Justice.  We hope to have over 10,103 people drumming simultaneously across the country, in which case a new world record will be set!  There is already a real buzz amongst Hampshire campaigners and supporters to be a part of this simple action.  We are inviting all those who have been a part of the Trade Justice campaign so far to join us for this special event, as well as encouraging new groups and individuals to come on board on the day.  If we attract over 10,103 nationwide, we'll set a new world record for simultaneous drumming too!  We are urging you to invite your church families, local schools, adult groups to gather at a central point in your town or village, and to bring/beg/borrow drums, or use up-turned waste paper bins and dustbins to make their noise.  Why not invite the local MP, Mayor, Bishop to be there to adjudicate and witness the event?  Certainly invite the local media who will love the spectacle of it all!  If you need more information and need to get hold of the beat then do let me know (it’s very simple - even I can tap it out on my desk!).

Then, on 14^th September, we shall be gathering in London to do the same and to present to Gordon Brown a Djembe Drum that was given by Christian Aid partners in Senegal - prior to Mr Brown and Hilary Benn visiting the IMF in September.  Please put the date in your diary!

                                                                                                         Susan Barry Christian Aid Area Coordinator 023 80706969

Begging Letters

You will be aware of begging letters and e-mails that purport to come from those suffering in Africa and elsewhere, which ask you as clergy for help.  You will, quite rightly, be cautious about sending money to people you don’t know. One such letter was sent from Uganda to a lay worshipper in our diocese earlier this year, asking for help in the name of Jesus.  The general principle you might want to pass on to your congregation is that if they have no existing links with that person, and so they don’t know who they are sending money to, it’s better to give via the established charitable routes.

The Power of Prayer

The day was long, the burden I had borne

Seemed heavier than I could longer bear,

And then it lifted –

But I did not know

Some one had knelt in prayer.  Had taken

Me to God that very hour,

And asked the easing of the load,

And He, in infinite compassion,

Had stooped down and taken it

From me.

We cannot tell how often as we pray

For some bewildered one,

Hurt and distressed,

The answer comes –

But many times those hearts

Find sudden peace and rest.

Some one had prayed,

And Faith, a reaching hand,

Took hold of God,

And brought Him down that day!

So many, many hearts

Have need of prayer –

OH, LET US PRAY.

Carmelite Monastery, Tallow

Canon Derek Brown

Jacki Gould interviewed Father Brown in 2003 for the magazine of members of the Anglican Society for the Welfare of Animals for a story of a man who has always been accompanied by a dog – not from choice in one case!  The article entitled “The Priest Who Loves All Creatures Great and Small and Especially Dogs” is published in this magazine with Father Brown’s permission.